Curveball’s First Year is Free to All

Curveball’s First Year is Free to All

These days there’s always a certain level of risk involved when you take on a new author. Sure, it might be great — you might be swept away into a brand new world, caught up in a fantastic story, gripped by the trials and tribulations of the characters as you watch them struggle — on the other hand, you might come out the other end having wasted your time and your money. And until you know, the writer is kind of a dodgy, suspicious figure. Someone you always keep one eye on. Your hand moves to your wallet/purse/pepper spray/taser/brass knuckles any time he or she moves your way. You always have to have five excuses on hand explaining why you can’t read their amazing manuscript right this minute, but I’ll get to it the first chance I have as you move swiftly to the nearest exit, probably pulling the fire alarm to create a distraction for good measure.

You always need an exit strategy.

What do you really know about these unknown authors, anyway? Take me, for example: sure, I’m full of opinions, and you’ll hear plenty of them on the Throwing the Gun podcast, but do those opinions have any merit? Can I, in any way, shape, or form, back them up with prose? Sure, I call myself a “Self-Publishing Supervillain,” but what kind of villain am I, really? Am I operating on the same level as the Joker or Luthor, or are we talking Kite Man? Or Calendar Man? If the answer is “the Joker,” which Joker? Heath Ledger? Sid Caesar? Jared Leto? Jack Nicholson? Mark Hamill? The distinction matters!

And what the heck is a “prose comic,” anyway? Why not just call Curveball “serialized superhero fiction” and be done with it? It’s supposed to be web fiction, right? Why not just call it that? Why do you have to make everything so confusing, Wright? What the hell is your problem, anyway?

These are all important questions. Unfortunately, answering important questions is a tiresome and depressing process… especially when, in order to answer those questions, you have to invest both time and money. That’s why I’ve made the entire first year of Curveball’s run completely free at participating ebook outlets.

That’s right! I can’t remove the investment of time, because I don’t have a time-based powerset, but I can remove the investment of cost. If you’re at all curious about my series but have been put off because:

you don’t like reading on the web

you get confused any time I say the phrase “prose comic”

you don’t like paying money to figure out whether or not you’re going to like something

or any other reason at all, but you might be tempted by trying something out if it’s just there for the taking, you can read the entire first year at absolutely no monetary cost to yourself.

… the time you still have to spend.

Issues 1-12 of Curveball are currently available for free on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes/iBooks, Scribd, Google Play, and Inktera (formerly Page Foundry), in DRM-free epub format. (They are not, unfortunately, currently available for free on Amazon, because getting Amazon to match prices takes a very long time.)

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Christopher B. Wright is the author and publisher of Curveball, a monthly serial in "prose comic" format. A self styled "self-publishing supervillain" and noted authority on his own opinions, he never met a windmill he didn't want to tilt.